Tuesday, January 5, 2010

his first day

excerpt from The First Day of School
by Howard Nemerov

A school is where they grind the grain of thought,
And grind the children who must mind the thought.
It may be those two grindings are but one,
As from the alphabet come Shakespeare's Plays,
As from the integers comes Euler's Law,
As from the whole, inseperably, the lives,

The shrunken lives that have not been set free
By law or by poetic phantasy.
But may they be. My child has disappeared
Behind the schoolroom door. And should I live
To see his coming forth, a life away,
I know my hope, but do not know its form.

**********************

Finn began his school career today. His first day at a local Montessori school. I know it's not the first day of kindergarten or anything, but for this, my baby, it's a huge step. He's been with the same two lovely women for childcare since he was 6 months old, when I started back to work full-time. He's now a lunchbag toting, playmat rolling out, Montessori work doin', independent big kid. So sighs my heart...

As you can see, he was more than ready for the start of his big day.


And silly as always.


After putting away his lunchbag, coat and hat,


he changed into his slippers.


Then off to put together cars as an interim task until the official start of the school day.


Bye-bye, mama!


8 comments:

  1. wow-what a big boy! i love the Montessori philosophy--he'll do great!

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  2. I bet he was happy to see you at the end of the day though. Did he have a good first day?

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  3. Oh, fun. I'm SO excited for our school to resume tomorrow-- SO excited. Grady gets to go through the carpool line-- and I can't say JH and I will be sorry not to get out of the car in the 19 degree weather. Hope Finn loves it (which I'm sure he will!)

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  4. I love that first picture. Hope he had a good first day. It brings back memories, J went to a montessori pre-school for a little while before we moved to VT.

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  5. Awww...big step for both Finn and Mama. ;)

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  6. Oh, how exciting. Looks like he is going to just love it!!
    Suzy

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  7. A big day! I bet your heart was full of emotion.

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  8. Oh my goodness Joy....he's so stinkin' cute and looks excited about this big step in life! Love Montessori, if we could afford it, my girls would be going to the nearby Montssori school. You really amaze me, I always forget that you work full time......I tried working while the girls attended private school, it didn't work out. I was such a mean mommy that didn't do anything with them. I was always prepping for school on my off time instead of doing things with them......you know the rest of the story.
    LOVE Elizabeth's sweater. I love purple!
    lisa

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